Video Games Plus: A New Edition for Batman: Arkham City

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"Arkham City" Gets Special Edition

If there’s a game that earned a "game of the year" edition, it’s “Batman: Arkham City,” which we picked as our best game of 2011.

“Batman: Arkham City Game of the Year Edition,” from WB Interactive, is scheduled to hit stores on May 29. It features the original game, a “Batman Year One” movie download and a new chapter called "Harley Quinn's Revenge," in which players work as Batman and Robin and utilize each character's unique combat and investigative skills to uncover Harley's vengeful plan and shut the gates on the urban mega-prison forever.

The DLC included on disc includes the Catwoman Pack, Nightwing Bundle Pack, Robin Bundle Pack, Challenge Map Pack and Arkham City Skins Pack.

May Day Reveal for Next "Call of Duty"

Gamers, get ready to answer a new "Call of Duty."

On the game's official website, Activision says there will be a “World Reveal” of the next in the franchise on May 1 during TNT’s televised coverage of the NBA Playoffs.

Based on past games, the next in the series would be handled by developer Treyarch, which worked on “World at War” and “Black Ops.” That’s leading many to assume the game will be “Black Ops 2.”

But the rumor mill continues to churn, and some are speculating that the next "Call of Duty" game could be set sometime in the future. One of the teaser videos linked on the "Call of Duty" site shows a "prototype quadrotor with machine gun,” which looks like a AR Drone in camouflage, equipped with a heavy machine gun, blowing up mannequins and a car.

Is the advanced technology in the video proof that “Call of Duty” could be set in the 2020s? Hard to say, but we’ll find out the truth soon enough.

New "God of War" Announced

It’s not surprising that Kratos is getting ready for more battle, he’s not the God of War for nothing. Sony announced recently that the fourth game in the series “God of War: Ascension” is coming to the PlayStation 3.

A teaser-trailer has been released and it looks like "Ascension" will be a prequel to the previous God of War games, focusing on a time “when something other than rage consumed (Kratos)," or so says the narrator.

Not much else will be revealed until Monday, April 30, when there will be a live streaming event on the PlayStation blog and “God of War: Ascension” Facebook page at 8 am PST.

"Halo 4" Gets Release Date and Wisecracks

“Halo 4” not only got a launch date, it also got a little voice work from an unexpected place.

The newest sequel in Microsoft’s first-person shooter series for the Xbox 360 launches worldwide on November 6, and marks the return of Master Chief, who only made a cameo in last year’s “Halo: Reach” and has been mostly out of action since “Halo 3" in 2007.

Conan O’Brian and late-show sidekick Andy Richter also contributed some minor voicework to the game, as seen on a nine-minute segment on “Conan” last week.

O'Brien discusses the role with the game’s director, Frank O'Connor, and executive producer, Kiki Wolfkill. When they tell him about his part, O’Brien hilariously complains: “I’m a clerk in a loading dock, I have a gun but I don’t know how to use it. I’m a coward.”

During a clip showing some of O'Brien's and Richter’s voiceover work as loading clerks, they make a crack about a specific act of infamy in prior Halo multiplayer games.

“If we died, people would show our bodies the ultimate in respect," says O'Brien.

Richter replies, “Yep, no victory crouches on our faces."

Review: "Anomaly: Warzone Earth"

“Anomaly: Warzone Earth,” for the iPhone/iPad, PC and Xbox 360, takes the overly familiar tower defense genre and turns it on its head.

Instead of playing a proverbial goalie against an invading army, “Anomaly,” from 11-bit studios, makes the player the one who must navigate a variety of defensive turrets and towers to defeat an alien force in order to save the Earth.

Ordering a convoy of powerful military vehicles through the mazelike streets and corridors of a war-torn Baghdad to battle alien forces is a unique exercise in strategy and quick thinking.

The action is passive, but you’ll be too busy thinking of ways to go and how to adapt to new types of enemies to care. It’s a welcome twist that strategy gamers will dig, even if the lack of missions and content means the love affair may not last too long.